1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electro-optical device that can prevent a transistor from being damaged, a power supply method that is to be used by the electro-optical device, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
Recently, various kinds of electro-optical devices in which light-emitting elements such as organic light-emitting diode (hereinafter referred to as “OLED”) elements are built have been proposed in the art. Such an electro-optical device typically has the following structure. A plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of data lines are formed over a glass substrate. A pixel circuit is provided at a position corresponding to each of the intersections of the scanning lines and the data lines. The pixel circuit includes, in addition to the light-emitting element, a driving transistor that allows an electric current to flow through the light-emitting element. Therefore, the driving transistor is formed as a thin film transistor.
Such an electro-optical device is required to be small in size and offer high definition. To meet strict requirements for a small size and high definition, a technique of forming pixel circuits not over a glass substrate but over a silicon substrate has been proposed in the art. An example of such a technique is disclosed in JP-A-2009-152113.
In a structure in which pixel circuits are formed over a silicon substrate, though it is easier to reduce the size of each transistor, the withstand voltage of the transistor is lower. Therefore, depending on an electric current that flows through the light-emitting element, there is a risk that a voltage that is higher than the withstand voltage might be applied to the driving transistor, resulting in the breakdown of the driving transistor.